Overhead ceiling fans have become very popular over in recent years. Problems have developed as to the operations of the fans. For example, traditional fans are often left on when occupants leave rooms with overhead ceiling fans. Thus, the fans can consume unnecessary power in unoccupied rooms. Another problem occurs when newly arriving occupants to new rooms and/or to darkened rooms have to search for hard to find wall toggle switches and/or overhanging chains to turn on the ceiling fans. Warm and/or stuffy rooms can be very uncomfortable to newly arriving occupants, who would have to wait for the rooms to cool down and circulate airflow. Further, turning on and off several fans in a home or building is often so inconvenient that fans are left on.
In prior art searches several patents were cited as of general interest in the art, but still fail to overcome the problems cited above.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,322,632 to Hart et al. describes a "remote load selector", title, that allows for both a ceiling fan motor and a built-in light fixture to be selectively controlled from a single two-conductor hardwire cable connection.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,671,458 to Fukuda et al. describes an "air conditioning apparatus", title, that senses temperatures via an infrared sensor to vary the air conditioner air flow pattern rather than to modify the fan motor speed of a ceiling fan.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,716,409 to Hart et al. describes an "electrical appliance control system" which manually activates a ceiling fan from a remote controlled outlet.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,757,204 to Baldwin et al. describes a ceiling mounted passive infrared intrusion detector with a dome shaped lens.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,787,722 to Clayto describes a Fresnel lens capable of transmitting infra-red energy rays.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,782,213 to Teal describes a "ceiling fan electrically heating environmental air" where the devices heats the air in a room by resistance heaters located on the fan blades, which are activated by a thermostat.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,849,737 to Kirihata et al. describes a "person-number detecting system" for using infrared sensors to detect the numbers of people per room.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,990,908 to Tung describes a "remote power control for dual loads" for supplying power to a ceiling fan and light kit.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,033,113 to Wang describes an "Infrared Receiver System For A Remote Control Ceiling Fan", title. The Wang devices describes an attachment device for positioning a infrared sensor beneath the fan for receiving an infrared signals for a remote control ceiling fan.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,124,566 to Hu describes a shutoff circuit for a light sensor controlled switch.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,187,472 to Hart et al. describes a "remote control system for combined ceiling fan and light fixture", title using a wall mounted thermostat to send radio signals to alter fan speed and energization.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,189,393 to Hu describes a combination type sensor using both passive infrared(PIR) and ultrasonic sensing, as an automatic sensor controlled switch that can detect motion in a room to turn on or off lights, for instance.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,406,173 to Hu describes an occupancy sensor that senses ambient light levels to control the dimming of lights.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,488,273 to Chang describes a "ceiling fan and light assembly control method", title, using a sounding detector to turn on and off a ceiling fan and light kit.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,511,943 to Chang describes a "single throw switch circuit controlling a ceiling fan" that controls ceiling fan speed using a manual switch.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,559,406 to Chang describes a "ceiling fan and light assembly control circuit with remote controller/single-throw switch optional controls" that uses an infrared remote sending unit to send a signal to a receiving unit.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,627,527 to Mehta describes a "thermostatically controlled remote control for a ceiling fan and light" using household wiring to send signals to alter fan speed.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,637,040 to Kim et al. describes an "infrared object detector" that uses an infrared sensor to detect the distance between persons and an air conditioner to adjust air conditioner fan speed and baffled air direction.
None of the cited patents adequately and sufficiently overcome the problems previously described above, particularly the problem of ceiling fans being inadvertently left on for long periods of time when no one is present.